<p>I'm sure this has been asked answered before, but with this being my first child, I'm quite confused. She finally got her PSAT scores yesterday and the counsellor (who is an 80+ year old priest) told her some complicated formula for converting the PSAT to a comparable SAT score, but we heard from someone else that you just add a 0 to the end of the composite score. Would any of you be kind enough to clarify this for me? Thank you so very much.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, I think the predicted may be on the score report. If you just add the 0, you'll more or less get the equivalent to the new SAT. The writing on the new SAT contains an essay, though, and the PSAT does not.</p>
<p>you are correct: a 70-70-70=210 would be be a 2100 on the SAT. all other things being equal.</p>
<p>in addition to the essay difference noted by audiophile, the SAT has 3-5 Alg II problems, whereas the psat does not</p>
<p>It's not as simple as adding zeroes, as others have noted. Ask to see your D's score report. On the copy we were given, it says Score Report Plus and then Student Copy. So I'm assuming you're meant to have it. </p>
<p>The score report will give you more info about how your D compares to other students and what her future SATs might be. More important, the score report contains the answers and makes note of which ones your D may have gotten wrong. This is to help the kids bone up their weaker areas, which is the point of taking the test in the first place.</p>
<p>we were not actually given a report, just a series of complicated notes about adding 100 and then 90 to this and . . . .</p>
<p>My daughter said that the counsellor was reading off some sort of conversion chart and telling her what her scores would convert to, but he didn't explain it in any way that made sense and, frankly, since his stroke, it is VERY hard to understand him. I'm going to see what I can do about getting a copy of that report. It was very clear that my daughter has a lot of work to do in the math area (we expected that), so we need to get a move on.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your help.</p>
<p>It is not that simple. I've heard that you add a 0 to the end. Then the range for the score would be somewhere around like plus or minus 150 from the score. It will change. Few people get near their psat scores on the sat. Like a person with a 240 on the psat could get a 2250 on the SAT because the SAT is several times harder.</p>
<p>The PSAT scores with 0 added are the best prediction of the SAT. But that's all they can be, a prediction, just like your SAT score taken in one sitting is only a prediction of what it would be if you took the exam again. As an approximation, for each part of your score the predicted value would be +/-30 points from your original score. Thus a 650 on first sitting would predict to roughly 620-680 on the next.</p>
<p>For my kids, the PSAT's were virtually right on the money as predictors of their SAT's.</p>
<p>Several times harder? Not sure I've heard that before. The Math is supposed to be slightly harder due to the addition of a few Algebra II problems, but otherwise I think it's just a longer version + essay. I agree with macnyc -- get a copy of the score report, I can't imagine why you weren't provided with this. In addition to giving an estimate of SAT scores (expressed as a range, i.e. 600-700) the report has good information on what to focus on to improve.</p>
<p>The reading and writing and several times harder. They aren't at the same level of the psat. Psat was a joke. SAT is not. Everyone knows that the SAT is tough. They trick you especially in the math. Plus, it is longer and has an essay.</p>
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For my kids, the PSAT's were virtually right on the money as predictors of their SAT's.
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<p>mine too...</p>
<p>numerone:</p>
<p>"several times harder"....do you have any support for that statement, such as a CB website? While the SAT is definitely longer, and fatigue could play a factor, it's essentially the same material, less essay, 3-5 Alg II problems, and experimental section.</p>
<p>Its an opinion. You can't support opinions with facts. I'm just saying what everyone else says which is that the SAT is a lot tougher than the PSAT. I know that it is the same material, but it is tougher to pull the same score or higher than the psat. Check out the threads of people who posted their psat scores and SAT. You'll see the majority of them got lower on the SAT than their PSAT.</p>
<p>Actually, PapaChicken (who has far more dedication -- or obsessiveness -- than I do) did a detailed analysis on this, using the numbers that were reported. Except for the highest levels of PSAT performers (220-240), there were more improvers than "deprovers". But there are so many variables involved that I find it difficult to come to any sweeping conclusions. I'm not arguing that the SAT isn't harder than the PSAT, just that based on the numbers, the PSAT does seem to be a pretty good indicator of SAT performance. But I don't see any support for the position that the SAT is "several times harder" or that the majority of posters on this board got lower on the SAT than the PSAT. </p>
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<p>while Iderochi was posting, I was eyeballing the thread, and found the same -- many, many kids had their scores go up for the SAT, so it couldn't have been that much harder, even with the fatigue factor.</p>
<p>Both of my kids improved significantly from the PSAT to the SAT. In the case of my son, that cannot be attributed to the "practice effect" since he took the SAT the weekend BEFORE he took the PSAT. </p>
<p>The most common method of estimating SAT scores is certainly to take the scores and add zero: 70->700, etc. Some people recommend then adding about 25-50 points: 70->700 +25->50 --> 720-750.</p>
<p>However, I think it's more accurate to look at the percentage tables. If your child is 75th percentile on the PSAT, s/he'll be around the 75th%ile on the SAT. You can find %ile on the College Board's web site in the counselor section, <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/press/article/0,,46851,00.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeboard.com/press/article/0,,46851,00.html</a></p>
<p>You'll want to look at the national and state reports. </p>
<p>In all honesty, in making a first cut at possible colleges--which is what the PSAT scores really give you--it's easiest to go with the "add zero" approach, then make it a range by adding 100... so scores of 65, 60, 70 would be 650, 600, 700, for a score range of 650-750, 600-700, 700-800. That will give you, IMHO, your match and reach schools----as a first cut.</p>
<p>"The reading and writing and several times harder. They aren't at the same level of the psat. Psat was a joke. SAT is not. Everyone knows that the SAT is tough. They trick you especially in the math. Plus, it is longer and has an essay."</p>
<p>I realize that this represents your opinion, and everyone is entitled to his erroneous opinion!</p>
<p>While there is little difference between the PSAT and SAT in contents, the PSAT is a harder test because it contains fewer questions. Hence, every mistake counts for a bigger deduction. Added to the fact that, for many students, the PSAT is the first introduction to the arcane world of ETS, lower scores are typical on the PSAT. The difficulty in the tests does not stem as much from the inherent difficulty of the material tested as it does from the unusual type of questions. </p>
<p>While a student who scores very high on the PSAT has a great chance to repeat, most students will find it normal to see an increase in their projected SAT scores.</p>
<p>PS There is a reason why the Talent Search programs use the SAT as opposed to the PSAT! :)</p>
<p>xiggi, while I generally agree with you on these things, in this case I think you're confounding reliability with difficulty. The SAT is more reliable than the PSAT due to its greater length as you imply. That is, there is a greater chance that the observed test score will reflect the student's true ability. But is it any more or any less difficult? No evidence of that.</p>
<p>The PSAT uses retired SAT questions so there should not be a difference in the degree of difficult, should there?</p>
<p>Discrepancies in performance could be attributed to a variety of factors:
1. unfamiliarity with the test format.
2. time elapsed between taking the PSAT and the SAT
3. degree to which student takes the PSAT seriously or not (S1 was told it was just a practice test).
4. length of test.</p>
<p>Both my Ss improved from PSAT in October to SAT in May/June, though not by a huge amount.</p>
<p>Marite, there are many things that affect performance on the test -- other than the student's ability. Most of those would figure into the test-retest reliability, and discounting "learning the content" between exams (I would put test familiarity into this category as well as learning the substantive information needed to answer questions correctly). Unreliability itself can be due to the small N of questions, unusual or changing test conditions, student illness or nervousness, and just plain luck (guessing right or wrong on some questions, or getting a set of questions that click for a given student).</p>
<p>My kids were both familiar with the tests when they took the PSAT because they'd taken the SAT in Talent Search. Though neither prepped expressly for the exam. For them, then, the time between PSAT and SAT was not great enough to really matter.</p>